It turns out that Leonardo Da Vinci, may have had a Turkish mamma. A 60% chance that his mother was of Middle Eastern Origin, according to Luigi Capasso, the director of the Anthropology Research Institute at Chieti University, Italy. The mere possibility that the master of the High Renaissance in Europe had Eastern roots put a completely different spin on the clash of civilizations and the tired homilies we are so used to accepting.

The US looks at the US-Russia relationship of the 1990s as model to be preserved. For us in Russia, this was our weakest moment, a disaster, never to be repeated, said Dr Alexei Arbatov, when I met him in Moscow last month. Dr Arbatov is member of the Russian Parliament (State Duma) and the Program Chair for nuclear non-proliferation at the prestigious Carnegie Moscow Center.

The body count increasing in Iraq, the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan, and growing curbs on personal liberty in Western democracies are signs of just how wrong the war on terror has gone. We need a completely fresh approach to deconstruct terror and to build trust between Western and Islamic countries. We must also not forget that terrorism pervades strongly in parts of Latin America, Asia and Africa.

In September when the world tossed and turned over the Holy Father's remarks on Islam and the coup in Thailand, Strategic Foresight Group was seized with the new order in Russia after the presidential elections in 2008. Foresight is about the developments of the future, not commentary on the events of the past.

A volatile province, Balochistan has always proven to be a delicate issue for the political/military masters in Islamabad. More recently, the province has been up in arms against Islamabad's writ and continued exploitation. Despite having the largest gas reserves in the country, it supplies over 80% of its gas produce to Punjab and Sindh while it consumes hardly 17%. With minimal returns for all its gas supplies and having to depend upon Federal largesse the stark economic underdevelopment of the region has always been a rallying point for Balochis. This economic underdevelopment of the region when juxtaposed with the over bearing presence of the Pak military regime and the ethnic differences between Balochistan and the rest of Pakistan (read Punjab) results in the kind of insurgency that is currently being witnessed in the province.

Ambassador Olara Otunnu, a career diplomat, Under Secretary General for the United Nations and former Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict. Ambassador Otunnu is a renowned expert on governance issues and has tirelessly worked towards highlighting and addressing the plight of children in war effected countries, as far spread as Uganda, Sri Lanka, Sierra Leone (among others) promoting measures for the social integration and rehabilitation of these children in the aftermath of war as well as working on issues such as child protection, counseling, education in an effort to ameliorate both the short term and as well as long term negative effects of war on the development of these children.